Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Franklin Sutton's advice on Best Buy is don't Buy Best Buy

Don't Buy Best BuyI already knew this, but I had a senior moment.Let me relate a story. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. (Shakespeare and me)I must admit. I am a slow learner. I knew, under most circumstances, you were better off buying locally.Let me back ground this chronicle for you. Senator Frank Eldridge and I owned the first computer to be used in the State Capital. Later after my unsuccessful venture of running for Lt. Governor against Zell Miller, I moved back to Colquitt County. I set about building another computer. I am accustomed to saying that I built the first M.S. Dos computer that I ever saw.At the time, as far as I knew, the computer jointly owned by Colquitt County and the City of Moultrie was the only other computer running in the county. Certainly it was the first "home computer."I had to purchase three cabinets to get one. This requires me to build two more. Over the years, I sold a few others. Then the home computer market got saturated and there was little demand for home made entries.About ten years ago, I assembled my last one. It was old and ugly, slow and steady, pugnacious but dependable. Alas a few short weeks ago, it developed aged computer syndrom. My beloved companion of the past decade was giving up the ghost. Its spirit was broken. It was in dire circumstances.Its mouse was giving trouble .this is only a minor distraction I speculated to myself. Its mouse board needs replacing. I opened up the cabinet and found that it did not have a separate mouse board. I would have to replace the complete mother board. This ain't good. I mused. As old as this unit is, I need to purchase another one. I then called a local computer expert. My own talents were outdated by massive changes in technology. He didn't call back.In the mean time, I was in Valdosta and saw the big yellow sign, BEST BUY, I whipped in. This was a mistake. I ended up buying the most expensive Hewlett Packard that they offered. I would have been better off to have donated the money to the Salvation army.As a rule once a computer is burned in, it gives no problems. This one came with a defective Hard Drive. After the third trip down there, they agreed with me. It had a bad hard drive.At the point of purchase there were all kinds of promises of reliable store service. The abominable snow man would be easier to find than the promised local service. We'll send it back they said, it's still in warranty. It was purchased 11/27/07. It still ain't fixed. They installed a new hard drive, but I have to jump through the hoops at Hewlett Packard to get an operating system. You know the procedure where you are placed on hold and forced to listen to some caned music not knowing whether you will ever hear from "a people." Hewlett Packard and Best Buy has this thing going for them. Neither knows Franklin Sutton. It is my problem it seems. Best Buy is a large discount house. They have their employment an NBA who has stated in a printed piece that it is possibly to their financial advantage to lose a customer than it would be to satisfy a customer.Best Buy would be just as likely to pick Adam's House Cat as Franklin Sutton from a line up.All You Fools . . . As P.T. Barnum said "There is a sucker born every minute"The new hard drive is $109.00 over the shelf. As I write this, I have been from Ellenton to Valdosta five times. If I were to count my labor, and the cost of gas, I would have been five times better off not trying to have Best Buy and Hewlett Packard fix their error. I should buy the hard drive and install it myself.Do I expect that the loss of my business will hurt either? Certainly, not. I am foolish but not naive. My patronize does not effect them. The problem in my problem not theirs. There are many more suckers out there, willing to take the chance of getting a sound unit.Few will show up and stand in line behind others with a personal computer under their arms in a vain and futile hope who believes that a large corporation cares about them or their business.The only point that I am trying to make is to deal locally where you know the person, where you are familiar with their integrity and expect them to do as promised.That was 11/27/07 this in now 3/09/08. I don't know how long this saga will continue. Fortunately, my old home built has not let me down. Praise god for haywireThe above is the original of my story published in my weekly article THE X'CHAIRRMAN'S CORNER. this is a sequel to that story. Now several days later, I am more than indignantI am more than indignant., offended, provoked or annoyed. The policy of HP has antagonized me beyond any level of depiction.I have spent the better part of two days trying to buy something for which I had already paid. The so called recovery disk. I did not need a recovery disk. The system never worked there was nothing on the disk other than programs which I had purchased and the operation system which I thought I had purchased. The system came back without an operating system. I was not given a copy of Vista when I purchased the unit. It was pre-loaded. I assume that I purchased it. Now I am informed by Best Buy and HP that I must purchse from Microsoft a recovery disk.That is not easy. Several places on the HP website insist that this is N.A. for that serial. I assume that N.A. means not available. I had to jump through several hoops, never the correct one. At one point two numbers were suggested, one 800-952-7869. (commercial site) the other 800-478-6836 was a $.99 cent per minute station.I gave up and carried it to my technician and instructed him to purchase and load a copy of Vista for me. This will cost me $45.00 per hour plus the cost of Vista.Perhaps when this controversy reaches the point of discovery, I will be able to gain some modicum of satisfaction.